Case of the peculiar trail {open}

[Thisisweird]

It was an arid morning to say the least when lock’s body finally gave out from exhaustion. It had been well over a moon since he last escaped his kitty pet life for that of freedom and adventure, but what Lock didn’t know about the loner life was of the unbearable lack of air conditioning. “At least I’ll die completing my dreams”.....
“Hmm”.... Locks eyes grew heavier as he started to look out away from the field around him. The dirt below him felt as though he had been bathing in flames but oddly this dirt showed signs of movement. A couple of twigs were left on the ground broken along with a few bent leaves as well. “Whatever came through here must know this place a lot better than I could ever hope of. I should follow the trail..well at least I would say that if I hadn’t been waking for ages without a decent meal! ” Lock’s heart began to beat slower, and his body started to ache. He would die before the sun would ever rise upon the next day if he stayed there. With everything he had, Lock got up paw by paw clutching the loose dirt beneath his claws following what was left of the trail.
A few hours passed and there it was, shade! Lock triumphantly dashed towards the shaded area beneath a tree. Oddly enough the trail had indicated that it had split ahead of Lock toward the farther piece of shade about five tail lengths away. Surprised, Lock thought to himself, “whatever it is, they must have extreme amounts of stamina or they were keeping there distance away from something, but I wonder what could make them dash off farther when nothings around here?” After catching his breath Lock ran towards the trail once more and studied the trail once again but this time more attentive. “the prints are definitely heavier and the area around them hasn’t recovered as much as the ones earlier. They must have stopped here for a bit but suddenly picked up speed as though they were afraid of something.” Lock took a deep sniff of the air, “eww!! What’s that stench!” The smell had appeared to come from the area where lock had stopped and had slowly begun getting stronger. “ I don’t want to run into that if someone else ran away! I’ll follow the trail for now.”



Character site: https://rollins16.wixsite.com/heshan ( ิ- ิ )

[The Cannibal]

@Thisisweird

An arid morning indeed, but then again it was soon to be greenleaf and the days would come to be more and more like this one in the coming moon. And of course with this heat, the predators and creatures that slumbered away during leafbare were active. Perhaps not as active as on a more moderate day, sluggish with the heat, but active nonetheless. Hannibal preferred this warm climate, not that the heat felt particularly good on his black pelt, but because it brought a severe disadvantage to those that did not bode well with the heat. The animals were plumper now that newleaf had fed them. It made for better hunting, and better eating for him.
The dark tom was no stranger to the outskirts of the clans, he had been wandering them for moons upon moons. He's seen many passing through, he's heard many things, and he never forgot a face unless he meant to do so. And new cats always caught his attention. It was a new subject to learn from, a new subject to manipulate and use if he wanted to. Lock was no different, and Hannibal happened to be nearby when the former kittypet began to follow a trail, a trail that didn't really matter to him personally. No, he was more interested in watching the cat for now, seeing what they were doing. That could be incredibly unfortunate with Lock, depending on how things went. You typically would not want his attention- then again, Lock didn't know.
Silently following after the other tom, Hannibal did good on remaining downwind, not that there was much wind to begin with. He's had plenty of practice stalking others, remaining unnoticed until the moment he decided he wanted to be noticed by another. And so he followed, he followed until he began to hear the tom talking to himself. That wasn't very common. The smell that was coupled with Lock's scent wasn't a particularly good one. He could just watch the other tom get torn apart by the ravenous beast. But at the same time, that wasn't as interesting an experience.
"For your own sake, I would suggest not following a trail of a creature you don't know. Not many cats seek an untimely demise," Hannibal meowed out evenly, standing now and approaching from behind Lock, stopping a tail-length away from the tom.

[Thisisweird]

@The Cannibal
Stunned by the sudden question, Lock’s heart quickly skipped a beat and had began to sink. Lock nervously thought to himself, “where and when did he come up from behind me?, Was he following me all along?” Speaking out loud with a curious tone, Lock asked the unknown tom in response, “And to whom do I owe the pleasure of receiving such a warning from?”